Not Charged/”Turned Down” (and Press Conference Held by the Maricopa County Attorney) | Felony Second Degree Murder Dangerous (with Knife)
State v. Mr. H (DMC No. 19009)
Phoenix Police Department Investigated (DR No. 2024-00001692718)
Mr. H was a high school freshman at Mountain Pointe High School who weighed less than 100 pounds. He was out at a Park with friends (one of which who only weighed 87 pounds), at 3 a.m., when a car approached his group. It turned out that a group of older teenagers had stolen a car three hours earlier by smashing out the window and tampering with the ignition. As they pulled up to Mr. H and his friends, they asked if they had any vape cartridges. When Mr. H. recognized that one of the people in the car was a person he had gone to football camp with, he said “Hi”, and one of Mr. H’s friends handed over a vape cartridge. The people then took the cartridge, jumped in the car and took off.
They then circled back around, and said they were “just kidding”. As they got out of the car, the Decedent (who had played football with Mr. H previously) punched Mr. H in the face and split both his top and bottom lips. Mr. H ran away as the Decedent then attacked the 87-pound friend and punched him in the stomach. They also made the other friend empty out his pockets and demanded that he give them “weed or money”. Mr. H was now about 100 feet from where the initial Assault took place, and the Decedent reapproached him.
The Decedent attacked Mr. H, and picked him up and slammed on the ground three separate times. He was doing this while he was pushing him towards a lake in the Park, stating that he was going to “drown” Mr. H. Mr. H suffered multiple contusions and a concussion while this was going on. As the Decedent pulled Mr. H’s hoodie from back to front over Mr. H’s head, Mr. H pulled out a pocket knife out of his Jacket, opened the blade and began swinging with his right arm in a hooking motion. While he did this, he was stabbing his attacker in the upper back and side.
The Decedent still did not let go, and the Decedent’s friends ran over and said “don’t put him in the lake”, and then they separated the two. The Decedent and his friends then all hopped back in the car and drove away. As they were driving away, they realized that the Decedent was bleeding, and they dropped him off in front of a friend’s house in the middle of the street. They did not take him to a hospital, and they just abandoned him with his girlfriend. The others then took the car to Guadalupe, Arizona, and tried to dispose of it by abandoning it. Ultimately, the girlfriend called 911, and the Decedent was taken to the hospital, where he later died.
In this High Profile Case, the girlfriend and other friends of the Decedent stated that they had “just gone out for a late night walk” by the park, and that they were just attacked by another group of teenagers. This was all a lie, and the truth came out through one of the Decedent’s friends (whose parents told him “just tell the truth”) while he was being questioned by the Detectives. When Mr. H got home after the attack, he told his parents about what had occurred, and that’s when they secured the services of DM Cantor.
We immediately contacted the Phoenix Detective who was involved in the case, and arranged for a “sit down interview” at the Police Station. We put together an extensive Timeline of everything that happened before and during the attack, including securing Mr. H’s “Life 360” data, which showed his exact movements at the Park. We also secured all of the clothing that was worn by Mr. H at the time of the attack. In addition, we revealed that while Mr. H was being attacked, he tossed the knife backwards into the lake once the Decedent’s friends had come over during the attack (out of fear that they would take the knife and stab him with it).
Once Mr. H went with our Team of Attorneys to the Phoenix Police Headquarters, along with his parents, he gave a full statement of events to the Detectives. In addition, they took photographs of his injuries, a buccal swab, and they were given his mother’s phones. We also provided them a copy of a “Trebus/Bashir” Letter, which detailed the facts that we wanted to be presented to the Grand Jury (if they were going to submit the charges).
Ultimately, No Charges were brought against Mr. H, and the Maricopa County Attorney held a High Profile Press Conference. The news media become involved, and they were also provided with the details of the case, including the Trebus/Bashir Letter, which was printed in its entirety in the Police Report. If Mr. H was Charged as an adult, he could have spent the next 25 Years in Prison.
